A powdered or shaved ice maker means an electric device configured to make shaved ice flakes looking like snow. Different from ice cube, snow shaved ice has advantages of a short making time and a high heat exchange efficiency.
Such a powdered or shaved ice maker may be classified into a rotary ice-making drum type and a fixed ice-making drum type.
A conventional rotary ice-making drum type powdered ice maker is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-0809928 which includes a rotary ice-making drum, a refrigeration cycle for cooling the ice-making drum, a water tank with water in which the ice-making drum is partially submerged, and a cutting blade for cutting the ice stuck on an outer circumferential surface of the ice-making drum into shaved ice.
Meanwhile, the conventional fixed ice-making drum type powdered ice maker is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-1446901 which includes a fixed ice-making drum having a freezing system, a water spray unit configured to spray water to an inner wall of the ice-making drum while rotating in the ice-making drum, and a cutter unit configured to make shaved ice by cutting the ice made from the sprayed water.
The rotary ice-making drum type powdered ice maker has a rotatable ice-making drum such that the refrigerant supplied to an evaporator provided in the ice-making drum might leak. The loading condition of the compressor provided in the ice-making drum to make ice might be variable according to the amount of the water stored in the water tank or conditions near the water tank.
Meanwhile, the conventional fixed ice-making drum type powdered ice maker has another disadvantage that the water not frozen from the water sprayed by the water spray part might fall to an ice tray configured to receive the cut ice only to melt the ice or make an ice lump and a further disadvantage that the water fails to be sprayed to an inner wall of the ice-making drum uniformly or the water sprayed to a lower region of the inner wall might flow downwards after failing to be made into ice.